Selected Settler Correspondence 1820 - 1837

Whereas ALL the 1819 correspondence was transcribed (see CO48/41 through CO48/46 at the National Archives), whether or not the writers emigrated to the Cape, here only letters by known settlers or their families, or letters of great relevance to the 1820 settlers, have been transcribed. There are many other letters in later files, thought not to be written by eventual settlers. However, if an ancestor is known to have emigrated after the 1820 settlers then it might be worth looking through the rest of the correspondence, which is arranged alphabetically. The relevant files for letters written in 1820 are CO48/52 (A-L) and CO48/53 (M-Y). Later files are labelled "Original Correspondence" followed by the year, and can be found from CO48/56 (1821) to CO48/186 (1837).

Unless otherwise stated letters were written to either the Secretary of State for the Colonies or his deputy. The original correspondence is filed in order of receipt. Here it has been placed in alphabetical order according to the surname of the writer, with letters by the same writer in chronological order, for ease of reading. Original spelling has been maintained. Reference numbers, where given, refer to printed page numbers stamped on the letters and will enable visitors to the National Archives to locate the letter more easily.

WESLEYAN MISSION HOUSE re William THRELFALL, 1821

Written by Sue Mackay .

National Archives, Kew, CO48/56, 41

[To Joseph BUTTERWORTH MP]

Wesleyan Mission House

77 Hatton Gardens

London

6th Dec 1821

Dear Sir,

A party of settlers who went out with a person of the name of SEPHTON in January 1820 to the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope requested the Committee of the Wesleyan Missionary Society to supply them with one of their Missionaries as its Minister, and the Committee having appointed Mr. William SHAW to accompany them for this purpose, His majesty's government confirmed the appointment and allowed him a salary as the minister of that party.

You will recollect that in the various communications which our committee have had from Mr. SHAW who, with his party, is located at Salem, in the district of Albany, he has most pressingly urged his need of a fellow labourer on account of the surrounding settlers and Hottentots, the great majority of whom have no religious instruction at all except what Mr. SHAW is enabled to afford them in addition to his other duties.

The Committee have now appointed William THRELFALL to proceed to join Mr. SHAW and to extend his religious labours by preaching and in the establishment of schools, especially among the surrounding heathen. Mr. THRELFALL has been fully instructed by the Committee to act under the direction of Mr. SHAW and to confine himself entirely to the duties of his office, to be obedient to the laws and to honour the authority of the colony.

As one of the Secretaries of the Wesleyan Missionary Society I now apply to you to request that you will have the goodness to obtain from the Right Honourable Earl BATHURST a letter of recommendation for Mr. William THRELFALL to the Colonial Government of the Cape of Good Hope.

Our Committee have for some time past been desirous of establishing a mission in the vicinity of De la Goa Bay on the east coast of South Africa about latitude twenty five, where the population is large and the natives disposed to be friendly. Will you have the goodness to furnish us with any information you may possess, whether difficulty is to be feared from the Portuguese who once had a settlement there, but which it is supposed they have entirely abandoned?